Monday, May 9, 2011

Now that our new office has a big balcony, I have more room to grow plants. I scattered a handful of vegetable seeds into two large pots just to test if these seeds have expired. To my pleasant surprise, all of them germinated. So much so that there is overcrowding in both pots.

If I am not wrong, they are the leafy cai xin vegetable. With the soaring temperature, our concrete balcony gets extremely hot in the afternoon. Fromthe photo, you can see that some of the leaves are already burnt.

I'm hoping for more rain and less sun, or these seedlings will never make it to adulthood.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The jasmine flower may not be very attractive, but it is one of the most popular garden plants here. Small with a potent scent, the flowers are commonly used for religious offerings and garlands. I have one in my patio and I'm always intoxicated by the lovely fragrance.

I have more than one variety of jasmine in my garden. The water jasmine is often used as a bonsai, and the fragrant white flowers usually grow in a cluster. My friend has a large plant in her garden, it is a joy to sit there and breathe in all that lovely scent.

The other variety in my garden is the wrightia antidysenterica which produces white flowers that are larger and stiffer. The flowers are scentless but more attractive than the other two.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

My parents must be the luckiest people in Singapore to live in a farm. They've got fruit trees and vegetables growing in the front and backyard.

The passionfruit vine is filled with big round passionfruits.

The flower is so pretty.

There's an old grape vine too.The dragon fruit plants are doing well. It's fruiting season.This is the bud of a dragon fruit flower.The starfruit trees are also filled with tiny pink flowers and fruits.This ripe one is ready for eating.They even have their own yam plantation.This vegetable is very popular here.The tree below is grown from a seed of the milk fruit which I brought back from Vietnam.The longan plant is also flowering.